Quantum Fields and Strings

We consider pure three dimensional quantum gravity with a negative cosmological constant. The torus partition function can be computed exactly as a sum over geometries, including all known quantum corrections. The answer provides important clues about the structure of quantum gravity; in particular, in order for the theory to be a proper quantum mechanical system some extra ingredients are needed beyond the usual real geometries considered in general relativity. One possiblity is that complex geometries need to be included; this leads to holomorphically factorized partition functions. These partition functions provide a wealth of information about black hole microphysics. For example, the Hawking-page phase transition can be studied exactly; it is a phase transition of the type described by Lee and Yang, which is associated with a condensation of zeros in the complex temperature plane.

I will present a construction of supersymmetric Wilson loop operators in N=4 SYM for an arbitrary path on an S3 subspace of space-time. I will show how they are evaluated in AdS and in particular that the string world-sheet is a generalized calibration with respect to an almost-complex structure associate to the supersymmetries preserved by the loop. I will present some special examples and in the case when the loop is restricted to an S2, some evidence that the calculation reduces to a perturbative calculation in YM in 2-dimensions on S2. This in turn is exactly soluble in terms of a 0-dimensional matrix model.

We present a general hydrodynamic theory of transport in the vicinity of superfluid-insulator transitions in two spatial dimensions described by ``Lorentz\'\'-invariant quantum critical points. We allow for a weak impurity scattering rate, a magnetic field $B$, and a deviation in the density, $rho$, from that of the insulator. We show that the frequency-dependent thermal and electric linear response functions, including the Nernst coefficient, are fully determined by a single transport coefficient (a universal electrical conductivity), the impurity scattering rate, and a few thermodynamic state variables. With reasonable estimates for the parameters, our results predict a magnetic field and temperature dependence of the Nernst signal which resembles measurements in the cuprates, including the overall magnitude. Our theory predicts a ``hydrodynamic cyclotron mode\'\' which could be observable in ultrapure samples. We also present exact results for the zero frequency transport co-efficients of a supersymmetric conformal field theory (CFT), which is solvable by the AdS/CFT correspondence. This correspondence maps the $rho$ and $B$ perturbations of the 2+1 dimensional CFT to electric and magnetic charges of a black hole in the 3+1 dimensional anti-de Sitter space. These exact results are found to be in full agreement with the general predictions of our hydrodynamic analysis in the appropriate limiting regime. The mapping of the hydrodynamic and AdS/CFT results under particle-vortex duality is also described.

Resent research seems to indicate that charged extremal black holes in D=4 supersymmetric theories should be most naturally described in terms of more primitive atomic constituents. I will briefly describe what I mean by these atomic constituents and how they appear to play a role in both BPS and non-BPS extremal black holes.

It has been known for a long time that instanton effects control the large order behavior of the perturbation series in quantum mechanics and gauge theories. I present a study of this connection in the context of matrix models in 1/N-expansion and topological strings. I will show how to compute the one-instanton corrections for a generic matrix model. Due to a recent matrix model inspired formalism for the topological string amplitudes on local Calabi-Yau manifolds, this can be used to compute nonperturbative effects in topological string theory and make predictions about the asymptotics of the string perturbation series. I discuss various cases where our predictions can be tested, yielding spectacular agreement with the asymptotics extracted by standard numerical methods.

Some recent investigations into the structure of the AdS/CFT correspondence rely on input from increasingly complicated technical calculations. Two related examples in planar N=4 super Yang-Mills theory include testing consequences of integrability and exploring iteration relations amongst multiloop gluon scattering amplitudes. I will review the latest developments in these areas and the methods used to carry out relevant calculations through four loops.

I'll discuss a reformulation of twistor-string theory as a heterotic string. This clarifies why conformal supergravity arises and provides a link between the Berkovits and Witten pictures. The talk is based on arXiv:0708:2276 with Lionel Mason.

I will discuss a solution generating technique that allows to generate stationary axisymmetric solutions of five-dimensional gravity, starting from static ones. This technique can be used to add angular momentum to static configurations. It can also be used to add KK-monopole charge to asymptotically flat five-dimensional solutions, thus generating geometries that interpolate between five-dimensional and four-dimensional solutions.

In this talk, I will describe recent work in string phenomenology from the perspective of computational algebraic geometry. I will begin by reviewing some of the long-standing issues in heterotic model building and the goal of producing realistic particle physics from string theory. This goal can be approached by creating a large class of heterotic models which can be algorithmically scanned for physical suitability. I will outline a well-defined set of heterotic compactifications over complete intersection Calabi-Yau manifolds using the monad construction of vector bundles. Further, I will describe how a combination of analytic methods and computer algebra can provide efficient techniques for proving stability and calculating particle spectra.